6. The Am. Lang.

is "an impor. part of Am. history, of social history, and of the biography of us all". If we sum up the develop. of the Am. Lang. in each century, we can say: "Nature" in the 17 c., "Independence" in the 18,'Expansion" in the 19, and "Science" in the 20." The first use of the word "Americanism" is associated with a Scot. Acad., signer of the Declar. of Indep., John Witherspoon, who came to Am. towards the end of the 18 c. to become president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University). He was so struck by the "Americanisms"he heard all around him that he presented a series of articles on the subject. He was bothered about educated persons displaying "errors in grammar, improprieties and vulgarisms". He noted the use of mad for "angry", the use of contractions like ain't, can't and don't. But at the same time he declared, "It does not follow in every case that the terms or phrases used are worse in themselves, but merely that they are of Am. and not of Eng. growth. Although Am. and Br. Eng. are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to cause misunderstandings. Spelling Generally AE -or as a word ending is equivalent to –our in BE, Am. –er (maneuver) as a word ending is sometimes equiv. to –re(manoeuvre) in BE. AE tends to prefer -ize and -ization whereas BE prefers -ise and -isation. Pronun. Most vowels are pronounced a little differently in Br. and Am. Eng. RP has many words in /a:/ which are pronounced with /ae/ in GA, e.g.: bath, class. In BE the sound /o/ corresponds to the Am./a/, e.g. hot.

There are many differences in the position of the stress, e.g. words ending in -ary/-ory or -et attract stress on the final syllable: secretary, laboratory, ballet. Punctuation Periods (.): A period is used after initials or abbreviations. Americans tend to write "U.S.", while most British will write "US"following the rule that a period is used only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the complete word. Letter-writing: When starting a formal letter, Americans usually write a colon after the greeting ("Dear Sir.") while Britons usually write a comma ("Dear Sir,"). Numbers: British ("one hundred and fifty-six"); Americans go with "one hundred, fifty-six”. Americans also have a tendency to read numbers like 1123 as "eleven twenty-three". Grammar. Use of the Present Perfect. In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment. But past simple in Amer. The same with already, just and yet. Possession. The Verb Get The past participle of the verb get is gotten in AE. Past Simple/Past Participles The verbs like dream, burn, smell have two acceptable forms of the past simple/past participle in both A and BE, however, the irregular form is generally more common in BE

Other differences:

Nouns of direction with -wards: British forwards etc. ; American forward. Vocabulary

Some words mean different things in the two varieties, for example, bathroom: AE – toilet. Most of the differences are connected with concepts originating from the 19 c. to the mid 20 c., where new words were coined independently; for example, almost the entire vocabularies of the car and railway industries are different in Br. and AE.

There are many examples where different words are used to describe the same thing. E. G.: One Meaning — Two Words Light source – UK torch, US flashlight. One word – two meanings (Bathroom) Speakers of British English are generally aware of the American English term, but would not generally use it. It should also be noted that most American words can be freely interchanged with their Br versions within the UK without leading to confusion. Many new words and usages in AE reflect cultural changes in the society. For example: Soccer mom - a typical, professional woman with school age children.There are words which are found only in American English (FOB - an acronym Clintonomics).The influence of American English on British English has increased during the recent decades.